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STYLE | TRAVEL | FOOD | DRINK | DESIGN | GEAR | PROPERTY | CULTURE | SPORTS

Friday - Sunday, September 26 - 28, 2014 WSJ.com/lifestyle

FAIRWAYS TO HEAVEN Five must-play golf courses around the world W6 Cape Kidnappers: Getty Images [INSIDE]

GO WILD Art inspires a fall display W10

KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL Jason Atherton at home W3 GRAPE OF GOOD HOPE New African winemakers W2 W6 | Friday - Sunday, September 26 - 28, 2014 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. SPORTS ON PAR FOR GREATNES From Wisconsin’s Whistling Straits to Bhutan’s Royal Thimphu, a golf lover’s bucket list

cut to the right, as it was the day I played. BY JOHN PAUL NEWPORT I remember feeling helplessly over- matched by the downhill approach shot over I WASN’T EXACTLY NERVOUS five years ago water into the 15th green. (Splash!) And, when I teed off for my one and only round at most fondly, holing a six-meter twister for Augusta National. I was flustered with excite- birdie on the ninth, our final hole of the day. ment. My brain and my body were so wired I Augusta National is a special case. Golf didn’t notice how chilly the April morning fans world-wide feel like they know those was—less than 10°C—until I started shiver- 18 holes personally after watching broad- ing a few holes later. Even then I didn’t care. casts of the Masters every spring, when One of the perils of playing an ultimate the dogwoods and azaleas are in full bucket-list course like Georgia’s Augusta, bloom and pent-up lust for golf is at its site of the Masters tournament, is that peak. Getting a spectator’s badge to the gawking all too often overpowers the game. annual tournament has become a competi- Ideally, you should play these super-special tive sport in its own right. courses twice: once with camera in hand As a bucket-list course, it’s also an ex- (and jaw in permanently dropped position), tremely hard ticket. Like many of the other a second time with an eye toward actually top courses in the U.S.—Pine Valley in New taking on the holes’ challenges. Jersey (No. 1 in the world on most maga- In my case, it was unfortunate that we zine lists), Cypress Point in California and played Augusta’s back nine first. That meant Shinnecock Hills in New York—Augusta is that holes 11 through 13, which constitute the private. If you ever get an invitation to play, legendary Amen Corner, were my second, drop everything and go. (I got to tee off at third and fourth of the day. Any chance I had Augusta as a benefit of my job, covering the of playing well flew right out the window. tournament for this paper.) I can’t recall every shot from my round— Most people never will, of course. But no worry. There are many other courses around the world that are just as covetable You’re there to experience but require only a little planning to play and, in some cases, a big dip into savings. the course, its atmosphere It’s almost always worth it, especially if you and traditions—not bring avoid the No. 1 pitfall of golf course trophy hunting: letting a bad round spoil the day. par to its knees Poor scoring is more likely to happen THE TOUR PICK than not given the high expectations, innu- merable distractions and your amped-up how could I, since I was scarcely aware of state. Accept that in advance. You’re there NOT EVERY COURSE that hosts PGA Tour events or even major championships is a sure thing for your hitting them at the time?—but I do have to experience the course, its atmosphere bucket list. Commercial considerations often matter more to event organizers than pure golf quality. Gleneagles’ some wonderfully vivid memories. One is and traditions—not bring par to its knees. PGA Centenary course, site of this week’s Ryder Cup, would be few visitors’ first choice in . Whistling standing on the tee box of the par-three The best plan is to think of bagging a Straits, however, is a treat. One of four courses at the American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin, it hosted the 2004 12th, waiting for the green to clear, and bucket-list course as an excuse for building and 2010 PGA Championships. It will host next year’s PGA, too, as well as the 2020 Ryder Cup. Playing Pete swapping famous stories about the hole. a wonderful trip, not as the be-all-end-all Dye’s brutal, untamed design on the windswept shores of Lake Michigan, you could easily think you were How Tom Weiskopf hit five balls into Rae’s for a trip. Go with your spouse and/or bud- seaside in Ireland rather than on the former site of an air base. Other splendid and accessible courses that Creek there in the 1980 Masters and scored a dies. Make it a holiday. If you’re like me, host big tournaments are TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., site of the annual Players Championship, 13. How Jack Nicklaus always aimed over the you’ll return with great memories but still Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course in South Carolina, where Rory McIlroy won the 2012 PGA; and Pebble Beach middle bunker on Sundays when the pin was say that your home course is your favorite. in California, which has hosted five U.S. Opens.

YOU WON’T FIND a more spectacular course to THE DESTINATION build a trip around than New Zealand’s Cape Kid- THE HOTSP nappers. This 10-year-old miracle perches on fin- gerlike cliffs 140 meters above Hawke’s Bay. The setting alone, amid a 2,400-hectare working sheep ranch and wildlife sanctuary, might be suf- ficient to justify the trip, but architect Tom Doak’s minimalist design is a masterpiece. On hard, fast, tilting terrain, with wind always a factor, the fair- ways are wide but strategic. You need to be in the right place to approach the greens, especially those that appear to be on the edge of the earth. (Hang time to the ocean, should your ball over- shoot the green: nearly 10 seconds.) The remote resort has a small but luxuri- ous, rustically themed lodge called The Farm, with great food, a wine cellar and spa. You’ll feel like you own the place. The best time for golf in New Zealand is Novem- ber-April. If you’re going that far, plan a stay at Cape Kidnappers’ sister resort, the tranquil Kauri Cliffs in Matauri Bay, and then make a pilgrimage to the great courses of Australia. Royal Melbourne (West) and Kingston Heath, in the sand belt of the main- land, New South Wales near Sydney, and Barn- bougle Dunes on Tasmania, not too far away, are NEW ZEALAND all ranked in Golf Magazine’s world top 50. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday - Sunday, September 26 - 28, 2014 | W7 SPORTS SS Clockwise from main image, Kohler Co.; Getty Images; Clive Barber; Rose Hall; Relais & Châteaux

THE ADVENTURE

IN BHUTAN, WEALTH is measured in terms of gross national happiness, not gross national prod- uct. The main reason to put Royal Thimphu, the lone accessible golf course in this eastern Hima- layan nation (the king is said to have a private one), on your list is simply to make the trip. Your scorecard should also include some mountain trekking and visits to Buddhist temples. Tracking down exotic courses in exotic locales isn’t primarily about the golf, it’s an excuse for green-jacket-worthy adventure. Once, in Cuba, I succeeded in finding the course where the Havana Open was played in the 1950s. Today it’s a music school—a chamber group was practicing in the bone-dry pool for acoustics—but you could still see the former tee boxes and greens scattered across the campus. Architect Tom Doak recommends searching out Himalayan Golf Course near Pokhara, Nepal, built by a former British army major through a gorge-like valley at the base of the Annapurna mountains. One green is on an island in the middle of a river. Only slightly less off the beaten track are Machrie, on the Isle of Islay in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, and Askernish, on in the . Both look exactly as they might have in the 19th century. BHUTAN

UNITED STATES

FOR GOLF ARCHITECTURE purists, the courses POT of the Caribbean may be a disappointment. But design critique isn’t why we flock to the isles in midwinter. We go to get hot in the sun and luxu- riate in golf for a few days. For that purpose, there’s no better spot than Jamaica’s Montego Bay, where the best course is the cascading White Witch associated with the Ritz-Carlton. Named after a legendary 19th-century planta- tion mistress said to have disposed of three hus- bands, White Witch will certainly help you dispose of many golf balls. The opening tee shot, with a panoramic vista nearly 300 meters above the sea, drops 30 meters to a narrow fairway. Sixteen of the 18 holes, which jump gorges and border white limestone ledges, have views of the Caribbean. It’s a blast to play. “Golf concierges” in white jump suits, assigned to each foursome, will spin local THE MYSTICAL tales while helping you search for lost balls. For an even more luxurious alternative, try One & Only’s Ocean Club in the Bahamas, with its THE JOURNEY TO Royal sets the mood. The hourlong drive north from , which fine Tom Weiskopf course and rooms with as- is already far north in Scotland, takes you across the Beauly ; along the Cromarty Firth, where signed butlers. the spare beauty of the Scottish Highlands really begins to work on you; past the Glenmorangie Scotch whisky distillery in ; and finally across the Dornoch Firth itself. Golf has been played SCOTLAND here for 400 years. It’s the birthplace of designer Donald Ross, Scotland’s gift to America 100 years ago. And in midsummer, the best time to visit these parts, daylight lasts 20 hours. The ancient links Championship course, ranked No. 1 in Scotland and No. 6 in the world by Golf Digest, is short by modern standards, at just 6,155 meters. But if you stay a week, it might not play JAMAICA the same way twice. The view from the third tee, of gorse-covered hills and the North Sea, is one of golf’s most memorable and mystical. It’s as if you’re staring back in time. Lodging at the historic Dor- noch Castle Hotel or any of the other small hostelries and B&Bs will make you an honorary townie. In North America, the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge in Alberta, Canada, offers a similar, Northern Lights vibe. The long drive through Jasper National Park, past glaciers and blue-green lakes, is per- fect prep for the serene and wonderful Stanley Thompson course.